Name

The display name of a type definition, a scenario, a multiplayer map, or a music track.

Type display name

Specification — Type display name

Applies to: AbstractType and derived types
AITriggerTypeAircraftTypeAnimTypeBuildingTypeBulletTypeCampaignHouseTypeInfantryTypeIsometricTileTypeOverlayTypeParticleSystemTypeParticleTypeScriptTypeSideSmudgeTypeSuperWeaponTypeTagTypeTaskForceTeamTypeTerrainTypeTiberiumTriggerTypeUnitTypeVoxelAnimTypeWarheadTypeWeaponType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: string
When omitted: the type's section name

Name= sets the name players see for a type. The section name stays the type’s ID. The value is shown as plain text, not looked up as a translatable string, and is cut off after 48 bytes; an accented letter takes two.

[GAPOWR]
Name=GDI Power Plant

Players see the display name in several places, including these:

The sidebar. It is the caption across a cameo. With captions turned off by SidebarCameoText, it appears in the cameo’s tooltip beside the price instead. A superweapon’s tooltip is its display name either way.
The tooltip for the infantry, vehicle, aircraft or structure under the cursor. An enemy object shows a generic label instead unless its type is Nominal.
The country box on the skirmish and multiplayer setup screens, which lists each country marked Multiplay by its display name.
The tooltip over a tree or other terrain object that stands on a Tiberium cell. It shows the display name of that Tiberium type.
The dropship loadout screen, shown before a mission that starts with dropships. It shows a unit’s display name and the display name of its primary weapon.
The hint on a player’s row in the network lobby, when that player’s country belongs to a side other than GDI or Nod. The hint is the country’s display name.

A setting that names a country accepts either the country’s section name or its display name. The shipped rules.ini gives [Neutral] the display name Civilian, so a house list that names Civilian finds that country. The lookup stops at the first country in the list that matches either name, so keep each display name different from every other country’s section name.

Team types are matched the same way when an AI trigger or a trigger event names a team: either its section name or its display name finds it.

A display name cannot be cleared. Name= with nothing after the = is dropped when the file is read, so it counts as leaving the line out.

Scenario title

Specification — Scenario title

Applies to: scenarios
File: map file
Section: [Basic]
Value: string
When omitted: <none>The title is the literal text "<none>". The previous mission's title does not carry over.

[Basic]
Name=GDI 10A: Destroy the Prototype Facility (A)

The title labels saves of the mission in a campaign or skirmish game. The save dialog on the in-game options screen offers it as the save’s description, and the descriptions of quicksaves and automatic saves include it. A title longer than 43 characters is cut off at 43.

In a campaign, MISSION.INI can replace the title. After reading the map, the game opens MISSION.INI, or MISSION1.INI for a map with RequiredAddOn=1. A Name= in the section named after the scenario replaces the map’s title. The section name must be the full scenario name the mission was started with, path included.

The stock campaigns never reach this override. Their scenarios are named by path, such as Maps/Missions/GDI1A.MAP, while the stock mission file names its sections by bare filename, such as [GDI1A.MAP]. The title from the map file is used.

Multiplayer map title

Specification — Multiplayer map title

Applies to: multiplayer maps
File: map file (.mpr)
Section: [Basic]
Value: string
When omitted: No NameShown only when no earlier .mpr file sets a title. The .mpr files are read in alphabetical order of file name, and a file without Name= takes the title of the nearest earlier file that has one.

Parse behavior

the same [Basic] display name, read again when the multiplayer map list is built

[Basic] Name= is the map’s title in the skirmish and multiplayer map list. It applies to loose .mpr files, the ones found on their own in the folders the game searches (see Game data). A map listed in a .pkt packet takes its title from the packet’s Description instead and never reads this setting.

A non-empty Description in the same file’s [Multiplay] section replaces the title. The list keeps at most 43 bytes of either one; an accented letter takes two.

In a network game the host sends the selected map’s title to the guests with the rest of the game options. A guest whose own map list has a file of the same name shows its own copy’s title instead. The host’s text appears only on a guest that does not have the file.

Track display name

Specification — Track display name

Applies to: Themes
File: THEME.INI + THEME01.INI
Section: [<Theme ID>]
Value: string
When omitted: (empty)An empty name, which leaves the track's row in the track list without a title.

Name= sets the track’s title as players see it. The title appears in the sound options track list, beside the track’s Length, and in the on-screen message that the next track and previous track commands show. The value is shown exactly as written, not looked up as a translatable string. Only the first 63 characters are kept.

[DUSKHOUR]
Name=Dusk Hour
Length=4.11
Scenario=1
Side=GDI

The section name is the track’s ID. It names the track’s file unless Sound= names another, and it is how other settings refer to the track. A value that refers to a track is matched in two steps, so it can also select a track by its display name:

The value is compared with every track ID, ignoring case. A match selects that track.
If no ID matches, the first track in [Themes] order whose display name contains the value, with case respected, is selected.

Every value that refers to a track is matched this way. That covers a scenario’s Theme=, the tracks that the main menu, map selection, the score screen and ion storms request by ID, and the IDs listed under [Themes]. With the example above, and no track whose ID is Dusk, Theme=Dusk selects DUSKHOUR. Theme=DUSK does not, because the display name is matched with case respected.

A [Themes] entry can therefore fail to add a track. If its ID matches no earlier track’s ID but appears inside an earlier track’s display name, the entry is taken as that earlier track. No new track is added, and the entry’s own section is never read.

See also — Multiplay, SidebarCameoText, Official, RequiredAddOn, Length, Normal